ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Tuesday warned that the manner in which the election process was being manipulated would have grave implications for the people and the state.

In a report compiled on the complaints received from political parties, contesting candidates and through an independent channel, it said: “The blatant manner in which the electoral process is being vulgarized and the will of people mocked is extremely worrying.”

HRCP Chairperson Afrasiyab Khattak, launching the report, observed that the number of complaints and allegations of tampering with the electoral process received so far was alarming for the commission.

“Pre-poll rigging has, to a considerable extent, been completed through the putting in place of the constitutional amendments announced on July 26, by the National Reconstruction Bureau in the first of its two packages of the constitutional reforms to reshape the Pakistan’s political system,” the report said.

Political parties which included the PPP, PML(N), MQM and many regional parties based in the NWFP and Balochistan had complained of repeated attempts to interfere in their working, it added.

It noted that the military regime had played a major role in carving out the PML-QA faction from within the PML-N, but had also played an active role in moulding the pro-government alliances such as the Sindh Democratic Alliance and the Grand National Alliance.

It added that the PML-QA remained the most significant ally of the regime with the ‘absolute’ control over its working.

“Those within the PML-QA itself have in fact told the HRCP that the party’s leader, Mian Azhar, had informed them that he had little say in the matter of awarding tickets or other such decisions and was being made to send up relevant files to the government officials, leaving them to dictate such party matters”, the report stated.

The report, under a sub-title ‘Harassment of Politicians’, said the mayor and tehsil mayor of the Multan area had been suspended by the Punjab governor in September and accused of favouring a particular political party.

“Family members of the PML-QA leaders have told the HRCP that extreme coercion is used to persuade candidates to part ways with the PML-N and link up with the party faction backed by the authorities,” it added.

“Sources within the police say that they have been asked to harass opposition candidates, ‘pick them up’ at random, keep them at police stations and suggest to them that since they were likely to be on the losing side in any case, they should switch affiliations”, the report said.

In a letter received by the HRCP from Mithi in Sindh, a retired professor complained that the PPP supporters in the area were being severely harassed and even arrested by police, mainly at the behest of candidates of the pro-government Sindh Democratic Alliance.

The report said the electronic media which was totally owned by the government was extensively used to promote allies of the regime.

It also said the editors and journalists attempting to expose the pre-poll rigging had been threatened and pressed for avoiding such news, apparently by personnel of intelligence agencies.

Similarly, there were allegations that the owners of publications carrying the advertisement of opposition parties had been influenced by the government and threatened that official advertisements to their publications would be halted, it added.

Candidates also accused representatives of the regime including provincial governors of announcing uplift plans as a means to boost ‘officially backed’ parties, the report said.

“Even the president of the country himself has not stopped short of calling on people to back parties who support government policies,” it added.

The report also stated that the HRCP was informed by the candidates in Lahore, Mianwali, Multan, Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Gujranwala, Gujrat and other locations that local district and tehsil Nazims had been organizing rallies for the PML-QA candidates.

On the issue of postal ballots, it said, they were grossly abused during the referendum, and expressed apprehensions that the same exercise might be repeated during the general elections.

The report said that two recent reports added credence to these fears. In Chichawatni, a teacher was caught by a candidate linked to a key opposition party filling out 16 postal ballots. The teacher had apparently collected these forms from the local post office, and stated he had been directed to collect and fill in these ballots.

The report concluded that it was abundantly clear that the October 10 elections would not usher in a new period of democratic rule, as had been claimed by the regime.